Issue no. 480 This week’s news for company executives July 12, 2012
Four million motorists risk safety by ignoring dashboard warnings
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- Motoring crashes down, but injury claims on the rise
- People on the move____________________________________________ Lex Autolease plans ahead for future LCV growth
- Senior appointments set to trigger ATS growth
- Published by AWD Communications Ltd info@awdcomms.com www.automotiveindustrydigest.com
Four million motorists risk safety by ignoring dashboard warnings FOUR million motorists have suffered from ‘dashboard denial’ in the last year, ignoring a warning light for five days or more, it is claimed. A new study for Kwik Fit has found that 13 million motorists (36%) have been alerted by at least one dashboard light in the last year. However, a third of those (31% or four million) didn’t investigate the cause of the light for at least five days. The research showed that of those, 1.2 million continue to be afflicted by ‘dashboard denial’ - drivers who still haven’t been to a garage to get the fault looked into and are risking a breakdown, blowout or worse. Of the 13 million drivers seeing a warning light in the last year, just 29% (3.7 million) got it checked out immediately. The remaining 5.1 million motorists (39% of those who have had a light come on) took between one and four days to look into the underlying problem with their car. The warning light that affects more motorists than any other is the ‘engine system warning light’ as 3.6 million (10%) have seen it come on, whilst the ‘oil pressure warning light’ is the second most frequent offender, affecting 2.5 million (7%) of motorists. The Kwik Fit survey reveals that 400,000 have had a warning light illuminate their dashboard that they couldn’t identify, which could mean that for many ‘dashboard denial’ is a result of ignorance. An illuminated ‘tyre pressure warning light’ has been seen by one million (3%) motorists, but in reality this figure could be a lot higher because a 2011 Kwik Fit study found that the tyre pressure warning symbol was the most unrecognised light - less than half (49%) knew what it meant. A Kwik Fit spokesman said: ‘If a warning light flashes up on your dashboard it’s important not to panic. As long as there are no visible or audible signs of a problem - and the car feels ok to drive - then it’s often ok to carry on driving calmly until the next available service centre. ‘It’s shocking, though, that millions of us are driving around for days - and sometimes months - with a warning light illuminated. These motorists could be risking serious engine damage at the very least, but if the issue is left to develop, and the car fails mid-drive, it could even end up causing an accident. ‘Although the engine warning light is the most commonly occurring, it’s potentially the most serious. We would urge any motorist who sees it flash up when they’re driving to have a diagnostics check run on their car at the very earliest opportunity.’ Motoring crashes down, but injury claims on the rise THE number of personal injury claims on Britain’s roads increased 18% last year despite an 11% fall in the number of crashes, according to a report by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. The rise in the number if injury-related claims is calculated to have cost insurers about £400 million and is likely to result in further rises in insurance premiums. There has been an increase in the number of third party claims for several years, but last year’s increase is the highest on record. The Institute believes that the rise is down to unprecedented activity by claims management companies. David Brown, chairman of the Institute’s third party motor and PPO claims working parties, which produced the report, said: ‘The increase in costs to insurers because of the rise on bodily injury claims is likely to result in a rise in motor insurance premiums for drivers. ‘The clear correlation between claims management companies’ office locations and the ‘hotspots’ for bodily injury claims suggests that the two are interlinked. ‘We expect to see legislation coming soon which will affect the way in which claims management companies do business, which may account for the significant increase seen in 2011.’ The Institute attributes the decline in the number of road crashes giving rise to third party claims to a reduction in journeys due to the high cost of fuel. People on the move____________________________________________ Lex Autolease plans ahead for future LCV growth LEX Autolease is beefing up its commercial vehicle team with several senior appointments, including the promotion of Marcus Puddy to commercial vehicle director.
The UK’s largest fleet leasing company is also due to announce the recruitment of a new senior commercial vehicle consultant, assisted by two commercial vehicle consultants, each reporting into Puddy. The new appointments will see the company enhance its engineering capabilities and gear up for sector growth. Puddy said: ‘Due to the prevailing economic head winds, the credit constrained market is increasingly shifting customers away from outright purchase towards contract hire in order to release capital and overhaul ageing fleets.
‘We are responding to this trend with a new commercial vehicle offer which will provide a seamless, one stop shop for everything from basic contract hire through to highly complex vehicle conversions and consultancy.’ Lex Autolease currently has a total fleet size of approximately 280,000 vehicles, containing over 70,000 commercial vehicles. The company currently provides vehicle conversion services for more than 50% of its LCV customers. Senior appointments set to trigger ATS growth ATS Euromaster has restructured its senior operations team, with the appointment of Peter Tye to the role of group operations director - retail, and Columba Zaal as group operations director - comprehensive. Tye (42) brings 20 years of experience in the automotive industry to ATS Euromaster and joins the company after six years at Goodyear Dunlop, most recently as retail director with responsibility for the HiQ network and the retail partner programme. His primary focus will be the 169 ATS Euromaster centres which support primarily retail traffic from car and light commercial customers. Zaal (49) joined ATS Euromaster in July 2009 after six years in senior management at RAC Windscreens. He has spent the last three years as operations director - retail, a position in which he played a key part in the launch of a number of new services across the network. As group operations director - comprehensive, he will shift his focus to the company’s 199 comprehensive - centres equipped to support all vehicle types from cars to heavy trucks - and dedicated truck centres. He will also be responsible for a fleet of nearly 1,000 mobile service vans. Both Tye and Zaal will report directly to Ian Stuart, group managing director of ATS Euromaster. They replace Chris Hufflett, formerly group operations director, who has left ATS Euromaster to pursue opportunities outside the industry. Digest circulation is restricted to nominated e-mail recipients only. Unauthorised forwarding and copying is in breach of the copyright agreement between the client and the publishers. Therefore, the publishers reserve the right to cancel any agreement. Published by AWD Communications Ltd info@awdcomms.com www.automotiveindustrydigest.com 
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